


Merry Christmas, Fireheart

by librarian_of_velaris



Category: Throne of Glass Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Aelin loves Christmas, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Tree Decorating, F/M, Fluff, Rowaelin modern au, Rowan being sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-09-25 02:24:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17112659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/librarian_of_velaris/pseuds/librarian_of_velaris
Summary: Rowan doesn't do Christmas, but this year, he may have changed his mind. Written in collaboration with @highartist-munya on tumblr, who created a beautiful piece of art to go with the story!





	Merry Christmas, Fireheart

Rowan didn’t do Christmas. 

At least, that’s what he told Aelin year after year. 

And every year, she didn’t push. Didn’t pry. If he wanted to tell her his vendetta against all things Christmas, he’d tell her. Eventually. It was an unspoken thing between them—she wouldn’t push him, nor he would her. When they were ready to talk about their pasts, their secrets, they would.

Aelin was fine with that, as was Rowan. It hadn’t hurt them. If anything, they’d come closer through it, trusting one another with secrets they’d held to their hearts for so long. But Rowan had never explained why he hated Christmas. Despite her protests, he stayed tight-lipped about the whole thing. She assumed it had to do with Maeve, or Lyria perhaps, but she wouldn’t make assumptions.

Still though, she wondered.

And since they’d just moved in together—right before the holidays, nonetheless—Aelin couldn’t help but wonder if he’d help her put up the tree or kiss her under the mistletoe. They hadn’t discussed Christmas as a couple. Usually, Rowan would come over to her apartment with a small gift for her and help prepare a dinner for their friends, who came by as day turned to night.This year, she didn’t know what to expect.

Christmas was coming up and they still hadn’t gotten a tree. Or put up ornaments. Or a mistletoe. Hell, she hadn’t even bought candy canes!

Aelin usually had a schedule when it came to Christmas. As soon as thanksgiving was done, the Christmas spirit came out. And boy, did she love the holiday. It wasn’t just the gifts and the family—in fact, the family aspect always depressed her every year, given her parent’s deaths all those years ago—but she loved the snow, the festivities, the time with her friends, and the decorating.

Putting up the tree and decorating it with ornaments of every color, lights, tinsel, candy canes…you name it, Aelin put it on her tree. 

This year, though, it was a week until Christmas and no tree could be found in her and Rowan’s apartment. She hadn’t brought it up, mostly because she didn’t know what to say…given her love for Christmas and Rowan’s aversion, she wasn’t sure the best way to bring it up. 

But there couldn’t be Christmas without a tree. So, without giving a second thought to it, she ran to the nearest Target and bought a tree. It wasn’t real, but…it would do. All of the fresh trees were sold out anyway, and without a car to get it home, a Target tree she needed to put together would suffice. So she picked out the best looking one, grabbed the box, and rushed home to put it together before Rowan got home from work.

First, though, she needed to change. What was Christmas spirit without Christmas pajamas, after all? Rifling through her pajama drawer, she grabbed her candy-cane striped leggings and a green tunic, and plucked her Santa hat from another nearby drawer.

Fully in the Christmas spirit, she hopped downstairs and got to decorating.

Aelin started with putting the tree together, which, admittedly, wasn’t as easy as the instructions claimed

“Just…put…the pieces together…they said. It would…be…easy…they said,” she groaned, forcing the final pieces together, her arms aching from repeating this process two, three times already.

She was still forcing the pieces together when a deep, amused voice cut through her frustration “Need some help there, Fireheart?” 

Aelin looked up, only to find Rowan standing in the doorway, a wrapped box in front of him, with his arms crossed. She rose from her position on the floor and threw herself into his arms. 

“Rowan! You weren’t supposed to be home for…wait, what time is it?” 

“It’s five-thirty. I always get home now,” he said with a chuckle.

“Oh.” She turned to the wrapped box. “What’ve you got there?”

Rowan gave her a soft smile. “Go ahead and open it. It’s for you.”

She nodded, ripping the wrapping paper to shreds before…Aelin gasped, putting her hand over her mouth. “A tree?” 

“A Christmas tree, to be exact. Though, I think you might have beaten me to it.” He pointed to where the pieces of the tree she’d bought lay. 

“Hey, I won’t complain if we have _two_ trees. But, I thought you hated Christmas? Why the tree?”

“I said I hated the Christmases _I’ve_ had. It sort of turned me off to the thought of celebrating. But, now that we’re living together, I figured with you…maybe Christmas wasn’t so bad, after all. And you hadn’t gotten a tree yet, so I thought that maybe we—”

Aelin didn’t let him finish before she was jumping into his arms and kissing him. 

“I love it,” she said in between kisses. “I love it, and I love you, and screw this broken tree—” Aelin pointed to the tree she hadn’t yet managed to put up, “we’re putting together yours, and returning the one I bought. C’mon.” 

She jumped out of his arms and rushed to the broken pieces of her tree, putting them back into the box. “I’ll clean up if you start to put the other one together?”

“Deal.” Said Rowan, as he opened the box and took out the instructions. 

“Those aren’t going to help,” Aelin laughed, closing her tree-box and moving to help Rowan. “If it’s anything like the one I tried to put together, you just have to shove things into place until you hear that little clicking sound.” 

“Clicking sound?” 

“Just go with it.” 

“Whatever you say, Fireheart.”

Together, Rowan and Aelin put the tree together. And to Aelin’s surprise, there wasn’t any forcing pieces together, or not knowing where certain parts went. Everything went smoothly, and soon they were putting the tree in the corner and taking out boxes and boxes of ornaments and tinsel to decorate.

“Okay, so first we put on the tinsel, and then—”

“I know how to decorate a tree, Aelin.” 

“I just wanted to be sure! Now give me the tinsel—the silver one, please.”

He handed her the material, and she made quick work of wrapping it around the tree until it was covered in sparkling silver 

“Ornaments now, please,” Aelin said, moving to open the ornament box. 

She and Rowan, together, placed the blue and turquoise baubles around the tree, alternating colors and adding the occasional silver ball into the mix. _To match your hair, Rowan,_ Aelin joked. His lips twitched up in amusement before he left the room, claiming he needed something from their bedroom. Whatever he needed, Aelin couldn’t have guessed. They had everything they needed for the tree right here. The tinsel, the ornaments, the star.

In fact, she was looking through the box now for their tree topper. But she didn’t find it—couldn’t find it, either, in any of the boxes she searched. 

“Rowan? Do you know where the tree topper is? The star?” She yelled from the living room. 

“I’ll be right there!” Was his only reply, and soon enough, he returned—with yet another wrapped gift.

“ _Another one?_ Rowan, you know Christmas isn’t for another week, right?” 

“Open it,” was all he said. 

So she did.

Inside was a tree topper in the shape of a stag, with a flaming crown above its antlers. She put a hand to her chest, where her necklace—her family’s necklace, with a pendant engraved with the same symbol—lay. Rowan had made the tree topper in honor of her family’s symbol, their crest.

“Rowan—I—” Aelin could barely speak in between sobs, as tears streamed down her cheeks. 

“I thought that they could be with us every Christmas, at the top of the tree. To remember them.”

“Rowan, I—I love it,” she managed to say, and carefully took the topper and placed it on top of the tree. It gleamed and shined in the light, and Aelin moved back, to where Rowan stood. He wrapped an arm around her.

“Merry Christmas, Fireheart,” he said, placing a kiss upon her head.

“Merry Christmas, Buzzard.”


End file.
